Conveyor, chain, and belt cooking devices known have been in use for processing food products such as hamburgers and other meat patties, chicken and fish filets, pancakes, sandwiches, and other foods. Cooking is achieved by heat conduction to the food product as it is conveyed through heated plates. Cooking is typically achieved through convection and forced air approaches in a conveyor environment. The present invention on the other hand is novel and non-obvious because it uses a griddle plate in combination with the conveyor system and doesn't rely on forced air or air-convection techniques. Typically, a conveyor, chain, or belt cooking device uses a single plate or a combination of upper and lower plates arranged in parallel planes which are heated by conventional means such as electricity, gas or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,336 describes an automated cooking device for flame-broiling hamburger patties. According to this invention, the patties are placed at predetermined intervals on a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt, which comprises a series of transverse parallel bars attached to two lateral side chains, moves the patties through a plurality of cooking stations, stopping at each station to allow further cooking of the patties. Each cooking station comprises two opposed open-flame gas burners, one underneath and one above the conveyor. The patties are thus flame-broiled from both sides at once.
While this device provides uniformity of cooking time and temperature, it has several disadvantages. First, because there is no solid surface supporting the hamburger patties while they are being cooked, fat and juices created during the cooking process drip down onto and below the lower gas burners. This creates a need for shielding the gas burners from the drippings while still allowing heat transfer from the burners to the patties. Such shielding is costly and not completely effective. Additionally, this device's enclosed design prevents guests from observing the food cooking process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,377 describes a clamshell cooking apparatus. This apparatus comprises a heated upper cook plate assembly. The upper plate pivots down on hinges to cook the upper side of a hamburger at the same time that the lower side is being cooked. While this reduces cooking time and labor requirements, it does not eliminate the need for a human operator to place and remove the patties from the cooking area. Nor does this device eliminate the possibility of errors in judgment on the part of the human operator concerning the best cooking time for optimum taste and consumer safety. Furthermore this process is only fully functional when used as a batch method, which makes customized production difficult since the batches must be stored in holding bins before being served to the customer.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a new method and system for grilling food products that overcomes the disadvantages and deficiencies of the prior art. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for automatically grilling food products not in batches but in a “one-piece-flow” method, which utilizes discrete, individualized cooking surfaces, which enables an effective implementation of “pull” style production.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system that is capable of automatically cooking a variety of food items, including hamburgers and the buns on which they are placed on the same conveyor device.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system that automatically cooks food products for a desired period of time, providing the optimum taste and safety for the consumer.
Another objective of the present invention is to cook the food in view of the customer in a potentially interactive manner.
Still another objective of the present invention is to optimize the relationship between preparation spaces and cooking spaces.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to create cooking temperature options for the guest.